LOGAN’S Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea has a gold medal hanging around her neck after being part of Australia’s Women’s Rugby Sevens win yesterday morning, defeating Fiji, 22-12 in a thrilling final.
This comes after Australia stunned old rivals New Zealand to end the All Blacks’ defence of their women’s Rugby Sevens title.
The Pearls put on a show with skilful ball movement, powerful running, and breakdown smarts to edge Fiji, after losing to them in the rounds.
Apart from a few early mistakes, it was a near perfect display of Sevens, with the Aussies dominating the majority of the game.
Local gun Alysia Lefau- Fakaosilea, 21, was solid throughout the competition as the side’s most physically dominant player in both attack and defence.
The Loganlea debutant is our first athlete who will bring a medal home down under.
From field to court, the Wheelchair Basketball’s 3×3 format has made its debut at the Games and fans have been feasted with some intense competition.
The Australia men edged Canada 13-11 in their first game on Friday evening, with Kurt Thomson, 40, from Greenbank donning the green and gold.
Despite going down in a nail-biter against Northern Ireland, 9-11, the side showed strong form against tough opponents; including World Champion and Paralympic Bronze medallist James MacSorley.
The Badminton Falcons also fought courageously in the squad’s opening match-up of the mixed team event.
The Australian Badminton Team’s Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games campaign kicked off with the Mixed Team taking on Sri Lanka in their first hit out on Friday.
The team, consisting of Logan product Jack Yu, were pipped on the court, with Sri Lanka taking out the win, 3 – 2.
The Aussies came back to secure their first win over Pakistan 3-2 in the first round on Saturday but didn’t do enough against India, falling by 4-1.
Sri Lanka again proved too strong when it was Pham and Yu’s turn to take to the court against Dias and Karunaratne in the Men’s Doubles, beating out the Aussies 2 – 0.
Angela will have to wait a little longer to get her chance as the 19-year-old is to take part in the women’s doubles and the mixed doubles.
The Yus are the children of He Tian Tang, who claimed bronze for Australia in women’s doubles at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, after previously winning Olympic bronze for China in 1996.
Taneille Crase will make her debut today in her strongest event in the heptathlon– the 100m hurdles.
The heptathlon is the most gruelling of the women’s track and field competitions, encompassing seven events over two days.
Ebony Gorincu, who narrowly missed out on selection for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in the bobsleigh before switching sports, is still yet to compete in the Women’s 76 kg weightlifting event. Her event is set to get started on Tuesday August 2.
Olympic decathlon bronze medalist Ash Moloney won’t be competing after he made the difficult decision to withdraw from the world championships midway through his events, due to a painful knee injury.
